In what usually is considered a dead week on the tennis calendar, Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka picked up titles in Nice and Geneva respectively. They will hope to back up their title runs in Paris next week.
Both of these players possess one-handed backhands and heavy groundstrokes that have found their home on the clay over the past few years. Both got there in very different ways though.
Dominic Thiem looks for major breakthrough in Paris
Thiem, at 22 years of age, has had somewhat of a breakthrough season this year with titles in Buenos Aires, Acapulco, and now Nice.
Thiem stands far behind the baseline to compensate for his grip and long strokes. Nevertheless, their heavy spin reaps massive rewards on clay where he has posted his best results to date. All four of his top 10 wins thus far have come on the dirt. Those top 10 wins include Rafael Nadal en route to his Buenos Aires title (saving a match point), Ferrer the next week in Rio de Janeiro, and finally last week in Rome against Roger Federer.
While Thiem has reaped the rewards of his powerful game on the lower tier events on the ATP tour, he has yet to post a big event in a major yet. His best result at a major was a fourth-round appearance at the US Open two years ago, losing in straight sets to Tomas Berdych. This year he reached the third round of the Australian Open, losing in four sets to David Goffin.
To make matters worse for him, he has Rafael Nadal awaiting him in the fourth round should he get there. To make it there he may face a stern test against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the second round, but should not have problems against Kevin Anderson in the third round.
This seems like an opportune time to make a breakthrough in a major given that clay is his best surface, but the draw certainly makes matters difficult for him.
Wawrinka looks to repeat place of triumph
Wawrinka, 31 years of age, has had a mediocre season for his standards. While he has been known to be up and down, there has been little sign of up in the first half of the season for him.
He has claimed three titles thus far in 2016 in Chennai, Dubai, and Geneva, his home tournament. None of these, however, are big tournaments where he has historically thrived in during the last few years. Also notable is his lack of notable wins this year. His defeat of Marin Cilic in the final of Geneva yesterday was his highest ranked win of the year (#11).
With everyone talking about Djokovic, Murray, and Nadal being the favorites along with Federer’s withdrawal, many seem to have forgotten that Wawrinka is the defending champion. Paris was the place of his enormous triumph over Novak Djokovic last year, breaking the Serb’s 28-match winning streak and denying him a career Grand Slam.
The defending champion has been knocked off everyone’s radar after a mediocre clay season in 2016, with only his title in Geneva and a quarterfinal appearance in Monte Carlo to boast.
Easy to forget he was off the radar going into Paris last year as well. He had lost in the quarterfinals of Geneva to Federico Delbonis, and has a string of bad losses in which saw him hanging around the edge of the top 10. Nevertheless, he caught fire and managed to ride the storm all the way to the top.
While he could very well crash out in the first round to Lukas Rosol, he could very well hit a purple patch and manage to ride his way to the final with Djokovic and Nadal on the other half.
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